BBC Radio 4’s Classified Britain – the heartbeat of history in the front page small ads of old UK newspapers.
The Edinburgh Evening Courant, Saturday April 14th 1827
Eric discusses the adverts for passenger sailing to London and the Baltic from Leith in 1827.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007bc2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009kqz
Pupils from schools around Scotland delve into their local history and produce their own radio documentary. This week, taking over the microphones are the Primary 5 pupils of Leith Primary School in Edinburgh as they set out to discover more about their community’s links to Scotland’s whaling industry.
The story begins in Leith in 1750 as maritime historian Eric Graham tells of the first whalers to leave for the Arctic to hunt the Greenland whale. But it’s a journey that ends in the south, in the Antarctic, over two hundred years later as the pupils hear the memories first hand from some of the whalers who left Leith bound for South Georgia.
Dr Eric Graham introduces us to Leith’s other royal yacht, no, not Britannia but the King of Thailand’s SY Maha Chakri, built by Ramage and Fergusons there.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001348
“The female is more deadly than the male” – with history enthusiast Susan Morrison. Dr Eric Graham tells Susan the horrid saga of a cargo of female convicts bound for Australia on the ill-fated ship commanded by Captain John Hunter of Ayr.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000pnl
Time Travels
Susan Morrison goes to Ayr with maritime historian Dr Eric Graham, to find out about the grand Bruce dynasty plan to invade Ireland and grab a crown for Robert Bruce’s younger brother Sir Edward. If it had worked, the two countries might have been united.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000pnl
Time Travels
Susan Morrison finds out more about the darker side of Scottish settlement in Australia. Moving back to the 18th century with Eric Graham, we\’re on the trail of a gallant and dashing privateer Luke Ryan who scourged the coast of Scotland and gained the favour of Marie Antoinette.